To ensure manufacturability and yield, chip manufacturers require product designs to meet certain requirements for layout density. These requirements are expressed as minimum and maximum allowable local density values. Before handing off designs to manufacturing, designers must verify that the device layout meets the local density requirements imposed by manufacturers. For re-usable hard IP blocks or cores in finished layouts for integrated circuits, suppliers must verify that the layout will not cause any violations of the manufacturer's local layout density requirements when such blocks are integrated into product designs by others.
The figures depict various embodiments of the present disclosure for purposes of illustration only. Numerous variations, configurations, and other embodiments will be apparent from the following detailed discussion.